Again
by alteon77
Summary: After her parents death, Sarah is dying. Will anyone save her? Will Jareth even care? JS fic. Rated T for later chapters.
1. Default Chapter

Hi, everyone. This is my first Labyrinth fanfiction. I know this story starts out sad, but it will get happier (eventually). I promise, I am a sucker for happy endings. Also, I know the grammar can sometimes be slightly wrong. I know this, so you don't have to tell me because I beta all my work as I have not been able to find a beta reader yet. The grammar and punctuation isn't horrible or anything; It just slips every now and then, and like any human, I mess up. So please read and enjoy, and if you like it, leave a little present in the review box, BUT NO FLAMES! If you don't like it, you can tell me, but do it constructively please. Thanks and enjoy!

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CHAPTER 1

_The labyrinth had fallen._

_A shadow of a kingdom, a whisper of a King, What else could there be? The girl had destroyed everything with a few simple words. Unknowingly, she had wielded a power that he was only capable of, that could only have been granted to her from his heart._

_He had loved her and died for it._

_A great man, a king of the highest and oldest line of his realm, had died from loving a woman, an ordinary and human woman who took his royal heart and flattened it in her dirty hand, a woman who was not worthy of his love._

_And now, on the brink of her death, what peace could be afforded to a kingdom come and gone? What hope was there for it? Could anyone ever undo the damage she had caused?_

The halls were dirty in the Goblin King's castle. Goblins ran back and forth, chickens clucked, ale flowed from heavy barrels, and yet the Goblin King ignored all of this, his attention fixed on the black- haired woman scribbling something down in an old leather book. He read the words, black and vibrant against the yellowed pages of the red cover-creased story. A single tear had fallen and smeared the last word.

He frowned, slightly bothered by the words. The Kingdom had fallen, but not for long. The human had broken his heart, ripped it to pieces, and Jareth had watched as the world around him fell down, as she caused what he had earlier offered to protect her from. One heartbreak was not enough to destroy him, though. He put his goblins before his pain, rebuilding first the houses, then the trees and plants, and finally the castle, but for the little human to say that the labyrinth had fallen, didn't she know better?

In over four thousand years of his people's reign, the labyrinth had never fallen, could never fall. His ancestors had made sure of that when they let it overflow with power that they wished to harness. He turned his attention back to the crystal, watching with mismatched eyes as the girl inside of it buried her face in her hands and cried. For a moment, he softened to her. She was after all, the one creature besides himself that he had truly loved, that he risked death for, and the only creature ever to cause such hurt in him.. She was the one he once sought to make his queen, and there she was, crying to herself in the dim light of her room.

Gingerly, Jareth reached a gloved thumb to the ball as if to rub the tears away, but drew back, the angry side of him screaming out at the action.

_A human, a filthy human who had the gall to refuse a King_, the angry thoughts berated him, _why waste your time with her? She should be as good as dead in your eyes_.

* * *

Six months.

It hardly seemed like enough time for her. There was so much to do, and six months just didn't seem like long enough to do it.

_You're dying_, Sarah, she thought abruptly, _quit being so calm. You are going to die a slow, painful death. You cannot be calm._

Yet, she was. An eerie feeling of peace came over her as she looked down at the worn little red book in her hands, the knowledge of her impending death still not taking hold in her mind, even as she wrote of her death on the back page. Her thoughts flashed to Toby. What would happen to him? For three years, she had protected and mothered him, ever since the plane crash that had left the little boy a scared orphan, but Sarah had came for him. In the midst of grief and pain, she had came to hold him as he wept and sobbed, acting as a rock for him to lean on, and not once letting him know that she was leaning on him just as much.

She looked down at the crushed piece of yellow paper on her kitchen table, her bill from the hospital, and the enormity of what exactly was happening came crashing down on her.

_I am dying. I am going to die a slow, painful death. I am going to die_.

The chant in her head made her still, her face pale and drawn, as she looked out at the school bus stopped in front of her home.

Her bony body collapsed on the floor, the tears gushing down her face, sobs crawling out of her throat, deep from inside her diseased body.

"Sarah…" a little boy's voice called out to her, "Sarah, what's wrong?"

She looked up at Toby's angelic face and drew him to her, holding him as though she would never again get the chance.


	2. chapter 2

Hi guys! Thanks so much to sparkling silver angel wings, theshadowcat, Angela, batteredchild, Innogen, and lyn for your reviews. Not to sound hokey, but they really inspire me. This chapter is still somewhat sad, but it does brighten _very soon_. Also, I just wrote this about twenty minutes before I posted it, so again I will post the warning with the grammar. Thanks so much, and enjoy your chapter!

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CHAPTER 2

_Everything was dark. _

_Sarah was wandering a field, a dark patch of earth with fading grass and dying trees and a rumbling sky on top. _

"_I suppose it's going to rain…" she told herself quietly, her voice echoing in the emptiness. She drew a deep breath, slowly continuing on the rocky path ahead of her. In her mind, she did not know what drove her to follow the stone set on the ground before her feet, but she followed it anyway, a kind of primal instinct telling her that this was the path she was to take no matter the bruises and cuts left on her bare feet in its wake. _

_This was her road._

_She stilled for a moment, the hairs on the back of her neck standing up._

"_You did not have to go this way," came a crisp, accented voice from behind her._

_Sarah swirled around, her black hair slapping her in the face, obstructing the speakers face for a moment, but even if she was blind, she knew who spoke. _

"_What other road was there for me to take?" She asked him forcefully, "If not the one that is set out before me?"_

"_You could have taken a road beside me. I could have carried you over this rocky spot. I could have saved you from a life like this." He waved his hand across the landscape as if to emphasize a point._

_For a moment, she studied him. His mismatched eyes stared back at her from a thin, gaunt face. He looked tired, sad, like his world was falling just the same as hers._

"_I had to save Toby. There was no other choice for me to make. Not then. Not now. Oh, Jareth, if only you were real. I know I killed you. I saw you fall." Tears were making sparkling paths down her cheeks. "I saw you fall, destroyed by my words." _

_His thin lips turned up in a smirk._

"_You presume so much, dear. I am a little harder than that to kill. I am much too strong to see my kingdom collapse at your feet. Surely you should have known that." His seductive voice mocked her. _

_She stood there in front of him, half crying, half shaking, half alive, and he stood expectantly, awaiting some flash of fire from her. Instead, her tired green eyes closed, pushing a single tear from the lids._

"_I wish you were real" Her voice was soft, barely there. "Maybe then, I wouldn't have die alone…"_

_

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_

Jareth shot out of bed, the covers wrapping around his sweating body.

"What was that?" His voice was shaky even to his own ears. "Sar…"he stopped abruptly. In nine years, he had not uttered her name, had not even allowed others to say it, and now here he sat ready to run to her because of a dream. _A dream?_ A laugh rasped from his throat_, I am ready to run to her because of a dream. I gave her up so long ago, and a dream might change my mind._

The mocking voice in his head did not stop him from pulling a crystal from the air and pulling Sarah's image forward.

His heart lurched at what he saw. A pale, thin body had collapsed on the cold floor of her bathroom, tears running down her lovely face. He could hear her sobbing quietly, the cold linoleum cooling her fevered skin. His thumb went to her image as though to offer some imaginary comfort.

For several long moments, she sobbed on the ground, until finally her hands smeared the tears away, and she stood up rather uneasily on trembling legs.

_What is happening?_ Jareth asked himself, _Is she sick?_ Rather frantically he stood up from the bed, a moment of dizziness causing him to reach out and grab the closest bedpost to him.

"What in the bloody hell?" he asked trailing off as he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror.

His pale features had started turning an ash white, lending an deathly quality to his once merely tired skin. Dark, black bags rested under his eyes, an affirmation of how worn his body was.

_Why do I look so ill_, he asked, _I look as though I am dead. Never mind that, Jareth. Get to Sarah, help her._ Blonde strands of silky hair wisped around his face as he shook his head. Then with a snap, Jareth turned into an owl, ready to see what was wrong with the girl that had once meant so much to him.

* * *

Climbing back into bed, Sarah felt the threat of tears pricking the back of her eyeballs. The dream had unnerved her, had brought up pain that she didn't know she could feel any longer. In her mind, she could still feel the cold, barren atmosphere of the dream, warmed only by his presence. A pearly white tooth nibbled on her lower lip to stop the crying that was swelling up inside her weary body.

She thought of him, his pale features almost as sickly looking as her own. He looked as though he were dying.

_That's what it looks like when you dream of the dead_, a cruel voice whispered in her ear, _and dead is what the Goblin King is._

The sobs broke free then, as she gave in to the sadness in the cold comfort of her pillow, never noticing the snowy white owl at her window, watching her with oddly familiar mismatched eyes.

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Hope you liked it! Please leave me a present in the review box! Thanks! 


	3. chapter 3

Thanks so much for all your reviews! I would harass you guys some more before this chapter, but I have a final tonight in Volleyball…..Can you believe that? I didn't sign up for volleyball to actually have to take a written test. Oh, well, life's not fair. I am warning about the grammar again. I know, you guys know, but just in case, the grammar could be bad. I didn't proofread it, but I did post really fast, so that's gotta count for something, right? I really hope you guys enjoy!

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CHAPTER 3

She still cried.

Every hour of the strangely long days in the labyrinth, Jareth watched her through his crystals, oblivious to the noise and commotion that surrounded him. He was driven by a desire to run to her, to scoop her up in his arms and comfort her, but he was put off by the voice in his head, the one that whispered of her refusal of his offer to her. It was a cruel voice, one that told him to shatter the glasses he watched her through even as he watched, and it reminded him of the hurts he had suffered through her. She was the only creature he had made such an offer to. Without any real hesitation, she had turned it away, almost as if scoffing at the Kingdom and position he offered her.

Almost as if scoffing at the heart he offered her

The whispers started again, but he ignored them, focusing instead on the beautiful would be Queen crying into her pillow for the fourth night in a row.

His heart lurched as he mentally restrained himself from transporting to her side.

* * *

Sarah cried always now, the pallid skin of her face drawing even more into itself as if to escape the salty acidity of the tears. Toby noticed the pain now. He could see her grimace as she tried simple task, could see the fatigue that haunted her every step and action, and she knew that it worried him just as heavily as it did her. Even now in her minds eye she could see her baby brother's cute forehead crinkled in concern. She could feel his small hands and arms trying to give her something to lean on or a bit of comfort, could see him taking on tasks that were never his to do, but still he did them without complaint and with a level of maturity that made Sarah want to break down and cry even more.

He was scared for her, feared losing her as he had lost everything else in his life. And she understood, especially since she was in the same type of situation marred with the same type of fear. Only hers was slightly different; instead of only losing the last thing she knew and loved, she also was going to lose her life.

A solitary tear traveled down her skeletal face as she quickly moved to wipe it away. Toby would be off the bus soon, and he didn't need to see her crying anymore. She needed to step up and be an adult about it. Life wasn't fair. That's just how it was, and nobody could change that.

"I'm home…" A boy's shrill voice came from the foyer of the house. Sarah smiled and picked up a plate of cookies just in time to see Toby come into the kitchen.

"Hi, rat…I made cookies. I was wondering if you wanted to order pizzas and watch movies tonight?" Her voice sounded raspy and strained even to her ears.

Toby for his part, was not fooled. He cocked his head to the side and regarded her with a look that said 'Ha, I know better. Try to fool the kid. That's good.' Still, he did not speak to answer her but instead allowed a wave of emotions to play on his face. Sarah could almost imagine his thoughts.

_She looks bad. But, oh well it is pizza. No wait, she's sick and in pain and….AND SHE"S GONNA LET YOU STAY UP LATE ON A SCHOOL NIGHT AND WATCH MOVIES WITH HER! DUMMY, WHAT KIND OF CHOICE IS THERE TO MAKE?_

Sarah giggled despite herself as he nodded his head energetically, all suspicious stares and reservations of a pizza and movie night gone at the temptation of staying up late on a school night.

_And it probably helps that he'll get to brag about it to his friends at school tomorrow,_ Sarah thought, stifling yet another giggle for fear that her emotionally fragile brother might think she'd gone off the deep end and was laughing at the voices in her own head.

"What movie?" Toby asked, a head full of golden hair darting into the living room for the phone book.

"I don't know. What do you think?" Sarah asked, watching him in amusement as she went to the small island planted in the middle of the kitchen to grab the phone.

It was several minutes before he responded, barreling into the living room with the phone book in his hands.

"Pirates of the Caribbean" he told her as she put down the phone.

"Pizza's ordered" Sarah told him, grinning wildly at the stunned look on his face.

"But I just found the phone book…."he seemed hurt.

"Sweetheart, we eat pizza at least once a week. I know the number by now." She was still smiling.

"You could have told me that, butt face." He looked up at her, a smile spreading across his lips too.

"I may be a butt face, but you're related to me." She told him, eliciting a childish giggle from the both of them. "Come on. Let's go watch movies." And with that, Sarah took his little hand in her own and went to the living room.

* * *

Jareth watched and breathed a sigh of relief as he watched her and her brother giggle in front of a flickering television screen, the light dancing on their happy faces.

_Perhaps she was only sad_, he mused silently_, Human females are, after all prone to things like that, but now she has gotten over it and….no, no, no. That is not right. In the dream, she said she was dying. Well, she doesn't look like anything is wrong with her now. _

Although, she did look like something was wrong with her. The King regarded the image intently, mismatched eyes nearly searing through the crystal. Despite the fact that she was laughing and smiling, she still looked tired. The pale angles of her face were bony and sickly. She barely looked like the girl he had once loved so with her youthful features and vibrant smile. Now, her eyes were old and dull, as though the world had collapsed around her. Her fire was gone, replaced by acceptance and sadness.

_Where are her parents?_ He asked himself, noticing for the first time that Sarah and Toby were always alone in the large house, and in at least the past year he had looked in on her, she was always without them. Maybe they had a falling out….

Jareth almost winced to himself, remembering his own "falling out" with his parents. Even now, he could feel the magic vibrate through him as he thought of his father, who even now controlled the bordering Kingdom. Indeed, the Goblin King had once been sent to the Goblin King in exile…

"Maybe that is why she looks so sad," he whispered to himself.

But a part of him, a large part, was not fooled.

"Tonight," he vowed silently, ignoring the screaming protests in his mind. "Tonight, I will see what has happened…"

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Ha, ha, ha. (Evil author laugh) Sorry for the cliffhanger, guys. Please don't yell at me in reviews. I will post tomorrow, so don't scream, or throw things at me, or beat me……but do please leave me a present. 


	4. chapter 4

Hi, everyone! Here is the next chapter. I really hope you guys enjoy! A quick note….blah, blah, blah, grammar. You guys know and you're probably sick of reading it. Thanks to all my reviewers. Your reviews mean so much.! Thanks. I will update really soon!

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CHAPTER 4

In the lush softness of her bed, Sarah Williams slept. She tossed and turned, mumbling to herself about trees and fields. Every so often, a single tear would travel down her cheek only to soak the pillow below her.

Jareth's heart wrenched to see her like this, plagued even in her dreams by a monster that he did not know about. Gingerly with shaking hands, he reached out to trace the outline of her face, emotions and feelings rushing to him that he had forgotten how to feel. His jaw clenched and an impassive mask slipped over his features.

_I am not here to feel_, he thought angrily, _I am here to…..wait, what am I really here for?_

As if to answer his question, a cough wracked through Sarah's fragile body as she slept. Jareth started, afraid she had woken up, but was relieved when she turned over and fell back into her dreams.

He moved toward her, carefully removing the glove from one of his cold hands.

_What is that on the pillow?_ He cocked his head thoughtfully as he stared at the spot where she had coughed.

"Blood. Is that blood?" He whispered aloud, concern lacing his voice. Even with his limited knowledge of human medicine, he knew that blood was not good, especially not from a cough_. She's sick. She's very sick_, he told himself, _maybe the dream was not so far off._

Slowly, he reached a hand out, nervous breaths pushing from his lungs. Softly, feather light, he placed a hand on her forehead. All at once, images slammed into him, nearly knocking him back with their force.

He could see Sarah holding Toby as he wept, two coffins being lowered into the ground, her sobbing as she called on her friends through a mirror with no response save her own pitiful reflection, Toby screaming from nightmares, her heart wrenching as she held him, a doctor telling her she was going to die, dreams of himself, Sarah crying, always crying from the pain.

Sharply, he drew back, nearly crying out at what had happened to her since they last parted. His need to hold her was so intense, yet he fought it back, a stubborn part of him hanging on to the knowledge that she had hurt him and so he should not lower himself to weaken in front of her.

For several moments he stood still, clenching and unclenching his fists in an effort to stay put. So great was his battle that he did not notice the figure staring at him from the doorway.

"What are you doing?"

Jareth swirled to see the owner of the voice, a golden haired boy with a baseball bat in his hands.

"I'm not here to hurt you…."Jareth started uneasily, putting his hands up as a show of truce. "I only came to see if I could help your sister."

The boy eyed him suspiciously, still clutching his bat with trembling hands.

"Why didn't you come to help her during the day when she was awake?" Toby asked. "People don't normally sneak into houses in the middle of the night to see if they can help people…"

"She would be too headstrong to let me help her. She wouldn't let me do it, but Toby, I can make your sister better. I can stop her from crying" Jareth whispered to the boy.

Toby's hold on the bat loosened.

"How do you know my name?" He asked, watching him intently as though to look for any signs that the strange man in front of him was lying.

"I remember you from when you were a baby. Indeed, your sister and I were….friends long ago." In any other situation he would have chuckled at the youngster's fire. There was no mistaking that this was Sarah William's brother.

Toby lowered the bat completely, but kept it close to his side.

"I believe you…" he told the man, "And I wouldn't worry about whispering. She took two really good painkillers after our movie. A herd of elephants probably couldn't wake her up."

"Painkillers…"Jareth wondered aloud.

"Pills that kill the pain" Toby supplied, looking at Jareth as though he were stupid. "Where did you say you were from? Mars, Venus."

Jareth noticed the disrespectful tone that the child addressed him with, but truthfully he would have expected nothing less from any relative of the headstrong girl he had fallen in love with.

"Very far away…."was his reply.

"Not for nothing, but it shows." Toby led him into a kitchen and motioned for him to sit. "Now, about helping my sister. What can you do for her?" He asked, taking the seat opposite of him.

"Well, I have to know what is wrong with her first." Jareth told him calmly despite the fact that it unnerved him to see the child seem so mature about it.

For a moment, the King thought he would not get a response as the boy's golden head lowered for a minute.

"It's cancer….." So quiet was the response, yet it was deafening to Jareth's ears. "It started in her kidneys. She kept going to the doctor for infections and pain, and nobody ever caught it. They kept giving her antibiotics. And now, it has spread…."he paused "Listen, mister, I don't really think you can help her, but it would be nice if you could try. It's so bad now that the doctor's have really given up hope. And the coughs….all that blood. It's went to her lungs already. It's shutting down her kidneys. I don't know where you are from, but here that isn't very good." Tears were glistening on his cheek.

Jareth felt his heart stop when he finally understood exactly what the child was telling him.

"_Maybe then I wouldn't have to die alone"_ Memories of the dream attacked his mind. He could see the barren field, the stone road, Sarah's bleeding feet, and he could hear her telling him she was going to die. He broke from his thoughts only to see the boy sitting across from him staring at him expectantly, eyes brimming with unshed tears.

"She didn't tell you this, did she…" It wasn't so much a question as a statement. From what Jareth had seen of Sarah's attitude toward the boy, he knew that this was something she would have kept from him. She would have tried to shelter him from it in any way she could.

"No…..but she leaves her papers out on her writing desk…….and sometimes when the bills come in, she leaves them on the kitchen table. I guess she doesn't remember that I can read quite well now. You know how writers are…." Toby breath hitched quietly as he looked down at his hands. "She would lose her own head if it wasn't attached. Well, that's to say she can't remember much of the small things…well, except the number to the pizza place….and when bedtime is" When he looked up, his cheeks were sparkling with grief.

"I will…" Jareth started unsteadily, still dealing with his own wave of emotions. "I will try to help her. Let me consult my books and see if there is anything…." His words trailed off in uncertainty.

"I guess as long as you try, that would be something." Toby told him, hope flickering on his face. "Just please try really hard. I don't know what I would do without her."

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A/N: So what did you guys think? (In case you didn't notice, I'm hinting for you to tell me)

For those of you that left me a review on any of the last chapters, thank you so very much. Your reviews have really meant a lot. For Lady of the Labyrinth, a quick reply: Can any woman honestly chose between Orlando Bloom and Johnny Depp? (he, he, he)


	5. chapter 5

Hi everyone. Here is the next chapter. For those of you wondering further down the page: yes, pudding from a box really does that if you cook it to long. I speak from personal experience. I am posting the grammar warning as I have no beta. I would like to thank all of my reviewers. You guys are really great, and I hope that you really enjoy this chapter. Thanks so much! Enjoy!

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CHAPTER 5

_The path had grown too painful. The cuts on her feet were almost unbearable, making her flinch with every step. Her toes were squishy with blood, making them burn as she sweated. With one last labored breath, she collapsed onto the rocky road, burying her face in her hands and giving into the overwhelming sense of hopelessness._

"_Are you ready to let me help you?" A sick, sardonic voice asked from behind her._

_Sarah looked up at the magnificent figure, resplendent in his midnight blue coat and black leggings, and scowling as though she were some disobedient child. He stared down at her, one eyebrow cocked with a cynical gleam in his eye, expecting a defiant raise of the chin and curt dismissal._

"_There is no help for me now….." Her voice was torn and ragged._

_The cockiness on his face evaporated, wiped away by the defeat lacing her words. He felt his heart sink at the knowledge that she knew that the disease that ravaged her body would eventually claim her, and that the last battle she fought, despite all of her years of fighting the foes of her world, she would lose. Somehow, the thought that her defiance would never allow her to accept such a fate had given him some measure of hope, but now he realized the same as she that nothing was going to save her.Gracefully, Jareth sat down beside her, scooping her in his arms and rocking her gently, causing her to break down once again. _

"_Shhhhh…" he whispered soothingly, smoothing her tangled hair and kissing the top of her fevered head._

"_I'm dying, Jareth. I never thought…." She didn't finish the thought as he leaned down and touched his lips to hers. _

_Sarah felt as though her heart was swelling in her chest so tender and loving was the kiss. All sadness disappeared as he showed her in a way that he could never say just how much he loved her. He was there, ready to brave out whatever with her, ready to hold her as her world fell down. It was as though she was fifteen again being offered a love that would be remembered in the stars and envied even by the heavens, and hadn't she always wondered what this would feel like? A part of her had always known what life would have been like with Jareth, a man who gave his heart so sparingly yet so fully. Still, though, she did not expect this from him, not after what she had done to him. _

_The reminder of his pained face flashed in her head. She could see him looking at her as his world fell down, damned to do so by her own words, by the fact that she had denied something that should have been. She could see in her mind the look on his face as she left his Kingdom with the only thing she could: her brother. The giddiness in her heart was quickly replaced by despair as she tore away from him to look him in the eyes._

"_I wish you were real…..Jareth, I …" but she didn't know what to say as he looked down at her with such feeling in his eyes.. The words died on her tongue. What could she say in a situation such as this? _

_I was faced with a hard choice, her mind urged her to the words, but still she sat mute looking at the man she had loved for so many years of her life. And I had to do what I did. I had to protect that little boy, have always had to protect him. I didn't want to hurt you…God, I even think that I loved you then. I think that I love you even now, but you are gone far from me, and nothing will bring you back…._

_

* * *

_

"Time to get up midget." Sarah called from Toby's door, her bathrobe billowing around her as she made her way to the kitchen to fix something as close to breakfast as she could muster.

The shower turned on and she smirked to herself.

"I swear that boy has a girlfriend at school." She said loudly, hoping that the boy in question heard her. "Why, I remember when I had to pay my little brother five dollars a week to bathe every other day, and now he gets up and does it willingly… and at seven o'clock in the morning no less."

"I can hear you…" Toby yelled to her from the stairs. "But then that was probably what you were going for, huh?"

His only response was the clanging and clattering of pots from the kitchen.

"Sis, you know you don't have to fix breakfast for me. I would be just as happy eating school breakfast… You know, save you the trouble of messing up the kitchen…"

Toby groaned as he was cut off by the clicking of the gas stove and went upstairs to take his shower very slowly in hopes that he would be too late to eat the horrible food waiting downstairs for him. When he had stretched getting ready out for as long as he could, he came to his doom, trying to suppress a shudder of nausea when he saw the table set and breakfast ready.

"Eggs and toast." Sarah told him almost matter-of-factly, a huge smile on her face as she poured them both orange juice.

"Great. My favorite." Toby muttered to himself, plopping into a hard chair.

"Well, eat up. You don't want to be late for school…or your girlfriend."

He almost retorted back with some sly comment about her cooking but quickly clamped his mouth shut. Cooking was an area he didn't go into with her, especially considering that the last time he had insulted her cooking, she had cried because of it. Granted, he had only been four or five at the time and it had only been chocolate pudding. He almost smiled to himself when an image of a teenage Sarah frowning as she read a box and mumbled to herself "You mean you've gotta cook it. But it's instant…" popped up in Toby's mind only to be followed by an image of clumpy pudding with a congealed top. He had called it "funny looking" and she had broken into tears, ashamed that she was such an awful cook she couldn't even make chocolate pudding from a box. Halfheartedly that day they had tried to cover the top with whipped cream, and then they had tried to eat it. Toby had eaten nearly half of his bowl only to keep her from feeling bad. He shuddered at the memory. Chewy pudding bad even when he was that young, and the experience had left him traumatized. Even as he grew older, he threw up every time he even went down the Jello aisle.

Dismally, Toby looked down at his watery scrambled eggs and burnt wheat toast and took a deep breath. Sarah smiled as he dug into his breakfast with gusto, devouring at least half of his eggs and a couple bites of toast in a matter of minutes. Still, she was displeased that he had left so little of the bread portion of his meal eaten. _Well_, she thought with a frown, _the toast is kind of hard. Although, a growing boy needs a balanced diet._

Toby on the other hand was watching on the edge of his seat for the schoolbus, nearly knocking the table over in his rush to get away from the hellish morning ritual called breakfast without being handed a souvenir to dispose of on the bus.

He was not fast enough, though. Before he could get to the stop, Sarah planted a huge kiss on his forehead and handed him a piece of his leftover toast that Toby could have sworn would crack the sidewalk if he dropped it.

_She has got to quit doing that in front of people_, was his last thought as she faded into the distance, still in her bathrobe and mussed hair. _And she has definitely got to quit trying to cook._

_

* * *

_

For several days, Jareth sat in his large library, combing over nearly all of his extensive collection. He had found nothing despite the constant stack of books replenishing the tall piles beside him. He looked without break, barely stopping for food or rest. He was aggravated and tired, but still he did not stop, pushing on in hopes that one of the pages might hold some miraculous cure for his Sarah. As the need for sleep threatened to close his eyes for him, he came to something that caught his interest. Cocking an eyebrow, he read:

_Krisera was the wife of the third king of the Northern Underground, married to the King through an alliance between the aboveground and underground in the early days. When brought to her new Kingdom, she was dying of a disease of the heart. The doctors of the underground did not know how to treat her, seeing as they were rather limited in their knowledge of human medicines. For months, the Kingdom mourned for what they were sure would be a quick loss. However, nearly a year after her homecoming, the Queen was declared cured. It was said that the babe carried in the Queen's womb had cured her of her illness. It is well- known that after a Fae pregnancy, a human will be blessed with an extraordinarily long life because of the mixing of the Fae and human blood during childbearing. Indeed, the Queen lived for over two-thousand years afterwards, healed by that first child._

After reading the passage, Jareth let out a breath he did not realize he had been holding and flipped the book to its cover, careful to hold his place as though if it were lost it would never be found again.

"A book of Fae folklore….Great, that's just bloody great."

Fighting an urge to start kicking and screaming at the treasured tomes surrounding, he stood up and stretched his legs, mumbling a string of curses under his breath. It was the closest he had come to finding a way to help the girl, and it had to be in a book of legends right after an interesting story about mud monsters and winged pigs.

_Perhaps you could just try to heal her_, he supplied but quickly shook his head. Every member of Underground nobility had some sort of healing ability, but to use it outside of the realm was extremely dangerous. He would have to bring her to the underground to make it stick somewhat, and Sarah looked like she was quite happy where she was at. Even then, if he could successfully treat her, the healing would only be a quick fix. In about a year, Jareth would have to be exerting massive amounts of energy to heal her daily, becoming hourly until she died. Jareth needed more than a quick fix. He needed something more long term. He needed a cure.

He shook the sleep from his head and continued on his search.

"There has to be something here…."

* * *

Next Chapter: Lemons...

If you leave me a present, I will probably be persuaded to post it really fast...(he, he, he)

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	6. chapter 6

Hi, everyone. Thanks so much for your reviews. They were really great. Sorry about the time it took to post this chapter. I thought the first one was awful, so I chunked it and started all over. The grammar is still bad, so I know and you don't have to tell me. Other than that, I hope you enjoy!

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CHAPTER 6

"_I must be dreaming." Sarah told Jareth, plopping on the silk covered bed in the middle of the room and stretching out._

"_Yes," he told her, taking in his surroundings. "I do believe you are."_

_Sarah followed suit and looked around her. Gold glittered throughout the room, sparkling by the glow of the candlelight. Everything surrounding the two seemed to capture the flickering flames, be it the silk of the sheets and pillows, the velvet of the comforter and curtains, or the heavy brocade like material covering all of the walls. A slight breeze blew in through the window, making the small beadwork on the bottom of the drapes tinkle against one another. The raven haired girl on the bed had to remind herself to close her mouth._

_Jareth, on the other hand, swallowed a lump in his throat and went to safely sit on the window seat on the far side of the room, idly pulling several crystals from the sir and twirling them in his hand as Sarah watched him intently._

"_You seem to know your way around this place." She said, gesturing the magnificence around her. "Why is that?"_

"_Because," he answered dryly, swallowing another lump in his throat. "These are my private rooms."_

_He expected any number of things from her as she sat there looking at him with wide innocent eyes that seemed to be processing what he had revealed to her. He expected her to rant and rave, to scream, to look shocked, or perhaps to cast an embarrassed glance at the cold marble floors while trying to hide a bright pink tinge to her face. _

_He did not expect her to giggle like a school girl and pat the bed beside her._

_He shook his head vehemently. Even for a dream, something didn't feel right about this._

_Abruptly, she sat up, taking in his worried frown._

"_You're frightened of me, aren't you?"_

"_No. It is just that…" But he stopped himself, the cool air of the Labyrinth making his breath swirl from his mouth like smoke as he thought. What exactly was it that was stopping him from taking a little comfort in a dream. Mercy knew that he took it nowhere else. Still, he looked away to avoid her probing eyes._

"_I should shut the window. It's getting cold…" He mumbled to her while making his way across the room, careful not to let his nervousness affect his strides. I could use someone to warm me…." Came the sultry invitation from her all too innocent looking lips._

"_I believe I will take my place back over here." Sarah grinned when she detected trembling in his voice._

"_You are usually not so reluctant to share my bed in these little rendezvous' of ours" She told him, noting again with satisfaction when he had to close his eyes against her willing form lying all to comfortably on his bed._

"_I'm sorry. This has happened before….?"_

"_Very often…..Come on, Jareth. It is only a dream."_

_With a resolved sigh, he went to sit beside her on the soft bed._

"_That's the Jareth I know. You're usually more than willing to keep me warm on cold nights such as these." She giggled again as he swirled his head to look at her._

"_Your dreams…." He shot her a questioning look._

"_My very explicit dreams. Just relax….." She put her hands to unbuttoning his overcoat, but he stopped her._

"_What are you doing?" Jareth asked, holding onto her hands. _

"_Undressing you." Was her husky reply as she brushed off his hold and continued on her task. She trailed light kisses on his torso before coming to his lips, pressing them lightly with her own. Jareth felt her tongue reach out and part his mouth, giving her further entry as she kissed him fully._

"_Do you think this is a good idea?" he asked with little real doubt in his voice as she reached for the buttons on his pants, desire quickening her pace._

"_What in the world could be wrong with it. It is just a dream…."_

_

* * *

_

The Goblin King woke with a smile on his face and something cool pressed against his forehead. Quickly, he lifted his head up from his large, ornate desk and wiped a light trace of drool from his mouth.

"What was that?" he asked aloud in the empty room, recalling his dream and shaking his head. It had been years since he had fantasized of her and feeling the heat lace through his body, he knew why.

A tap sounded on the door, causing Jareth's face to crinkle in a frown. With a curt "Come in" he ushered the servant into his presence.

"I was beginning to think that a stack of books had fallen over and killed you." Came the wry reply from the short, brown haired man busying himself with gathering the piles. His blue eyes lit on his King, all formality gone with the years between them. Jareth said nothing in reply but rubbed the sleep from his eyes and went back to the book he had fallen asleep reading.

"All right….I will listen. Tell me what is wrong."

"Chalen. I did not ask for your counsel."

"Do you ever? And yet still you seek it." Chalen went to the bar on the far side of the room and fixed himself a tumbler full of a rich amber colored liquid. With his glass in hand, he started to head back to his King's desk, but stopped as if remembering something, and then headed back to the counter to grab the entire bottle to carry back with him. Indeed, being a King's tutor and companion came with some perks.

Jareth watched in irritated amusement as Chalen, his most loyal friend and trusted advisor since he could remember, sat across from him and begin to drink rather heavily despite the shining sun filtering in through the windows.

"Are you not going to offer to fix me a drink?"

The man raised one eyebrow at him and narrowed his bright blue eyes.

"I suppose I could….if you have a glass already on you, because I grow so old and getting up and down from these chairs is murder on my weakening bones."

The King sent a look to the ceiling and waved his words away and got up to fix a rather stiff drink. There was long silence as Jareth stood at the sidebar, filling and draining his tumbler several times before speaking.

"Do you remember the girl?" He asked, his voice gruff from the liquor.

"The girl who won your Labyrinth and stole your heart, and…."

A gloved hand flew up in the air to hush the rambling man up.

"I only asked if you remembered her…."

Chalen's mouth formed a slight "O" as he thought. "Well, yes… I suppose"

"There is no supposing Chalen. You either remember her or you don't." Came Jareth's harsh reply as Chalen nodded his head.

"She is dying."

His friend and teacher cast a hooded glance to the floor of the room. "Are you sure of this?"

"What do you mean. Of Course I am sure. I wouldn't be letting you sit here and aggravate me if I wasn't sure. I need your advice"

"I suppose that is what you've been doing in the library this past week?" It was more of a statement than a question but still Jareth nodded faintly, swallowing the swell of emotions rising up.

"And have you found anything?" Chalen's voice was small and meek. The King noticed the change immediately.

_What has he gone and done now,_ Jareth thought to himself, his eyes wide with fear of the old man's meddling.

"I have actually. Some nonsense in a book of legends…" Jareth trailed off in hopes of catching Chalen's face unguarded.

"Nonsense?" He almost squeaked out the word.

"Yes. Some silly blather about pregnancy and the mixing of blood"

"Oh. Well, I guess my only advice is that things work out in these types of situations.." Chalen told him, rising his voice back up.

"That is not what I want to hear. You are a seer, Chalen. Tell me what you see for her."

Guiltily, bright blue eyes lifted to the King's mismatched ones.

"She won't die, if that pleases you." Came his guarded answer just brimming with what Jareth feared were hidden revelations.

"And how exactly will she avoid doing that?" Jareth was practically growling now, the well-practiced iciness of being a monarch taking control of his demeanor.

For a moment, he thought he would get no answer as Chalen took another swig of alcohol straight from the decanter.

"Because she is pregnant with your child…"

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Shameless the way I mess with you guys, huh? I will post very soon (probably tomorrow). Please review…… 


	7. chapter 7

Hello Everyone! How are you all? Great, I hope. I know that some of you were a little peeved at me for that last chapter, so I decided to make you more peeved and not have Sarah find out that she was pregnant this chapter. I'm kidding. Well, sort of. I didn't do it to mess with you wonderful people anymore, but she doesn't find out. It's just the way the chapter worked out. I'm sorry! Don't throw coke cans and twinkies at me! Please! Anyway, here is chapter seven. You do get Jareth's reaction. That's something, right? I am going to post the grammar warning. It is probably going to be pretty bad on this chapter. I had hardly any time to write it. Also, thanks to my reviewers. You are all great! Enjoy!

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CHAPTER 7

"Pregnant….with my child…..?"

Chalen nodded his head with wide eyes and a sheepish grin. "Just now, milord. About thirty minutes before I walked into the room."

"Listen, old man, I don't know what you have done or how you have done it……"

"Oh, yes that……well, you see…." He took another swig from his decanter. "You see, I enchanted the dream. Had a hell of a time with it, too. Very difficult magic for a man my age…"

"Chalennnnn" Jareth growled, clenching and unclenching his fists to keep from hitting something. "Undo it"

For a moment, Chalen looked up at his friend with wide eyes. "Why? She is safe now. She will not die. You can marry and have a family just as I have always wanted for you. For once, try not to be so selfish Jareth."

"Why, you doddering old fool….to have the nerve to call me selfish when you have just meddled in my life in such a way that is unforgivable. How dare you!" He stalked to the door, eager to get away from the fight before he did something that foolish pride would not allow him to undo, but Chalen followed.

"There was no other way. I know this, Jareth. She would have died within the month. I know because I have seen it. You must look at the greater good. You will have your beloved now, if only you will go and claim her."

Jareth wheeled around to face him, anger contorting his features.

"SHE IS NOT MY BELOVED! YOU WOULD DO WELL, SERVANT, TO AVOID PRESUMING SO MUCH ABOUT YOUR KING!"

And with that he stalked from the hall, oblivious to the goblins and humans alike cowering from him.

* * *

Sarah woke for the tenth day with a feeling of complete peace. No more were the bloody coughs or the bouts of nausea. She smiled and stretched, a large smile on her face. For a moment, she stopped herself. Today, there would be more tests at the hospital, more needles, more pain, but somehow she knew all would be well. Nothing could dim her spirit after such horrible times.

Singing to herself, she stood up and made her way into the bathroom, taking note of her radiant appearance in the mirror.

"The sleep is doing me good…."

Try as her mind might to remind her of the depressing fate that lay ahead of her that day, she would not frown, would not cry. In fact, she felt as though she were at peace, not damned to a tragic fate very near in the future.

Indeed, by the time she was ready to climb in her car and go to the doctor's, her quiet humming had turned into all out singing at the top of her lungs, which left her with very nervous smiles from the neighbors. Sarah hummed the entire way. She hummed in the waiting room. She hummed in her examination room. She hummed as the doctor took her blood.

"Ms. Williams…." The serious looking man of 34 asked, a little unsettled at her happy demeanor. Everyone handled grief in their own way, but the most positive reaction he had ever seen in terminally ill patients was acceptance. The young lady in front of him looked like she was going to stand on his swivel chair and dance.

"Oh, no…." Sarah told him, flashing another wide grin. "Call me Sarah. That would be like me calling my little brother 'Mr. Williams.'"

"Ooookay, Sarah. Have you had any peculiar physical symptoms as of late, anything that wouldn't follow the original guidelines that we talked about when we first diagnosed you?" he asked as he looked into her ears.

"Nope. In fact, I feel fit as a fiddle. That wasn't on the guideline list, was it?" Sarah responded, swinging her legs in little circles off the edge of her exam table.

"No…No, that wasn't. You haven't had any nausea or pain? No depression?" He was looking at her incredulously.

"Yeah, I had all of that stuff. About ten days ago, it just stopped."

"And….well, that is to say….have there been any changes in your diet?" He asked, holding onto her arms and flipping them over as though he was looking for track marks.

"Well, I've been eating more. And I've slowed down on cooking for myself. My little brother has been fixing the meals."

"And what kind of things does he fix?" He asked, a little flustered at the situation sitting in front of him.

Sarah snorted. She may be happy, but she was not stupid.

"He doesn't fix me any special brownies or cakes if that is what you are getting at."

"No, no, no, of course not. It's only that….patients with a disease such as yours and as advanced as yours….see, they tend to be in more pain….and, well, they don't usually seem very happy about it." He told her, backing to the door. "I am going to get one of my associates come and look at you…" Before Sarah could utter a word, he had yanked the door open and threw himself into the hall as Sarah watched him and frowned for the first time all day.

Six doctors later, a drug test, and yet another blood test and Sarah was allowed to get ready to go home. As she looked up from grabbing her purse from the floor, her doctor was standing there.

"Ms. Williams. I don't want to get your hopes up, but it appears as though the tumor in your kidney is shrinking. I have never seen anything like this, neither have my colleagues. A month ago, the tumor was so large that I could actually see it protruding from your side…..and now, well now I can feel nothing there."

Eagerly, he looked for a response from her, but all she could do was nod her head dumbly.

"Are you sure that there is nothing you have been doing differently? We want to get you in for another body scan tomorrow."

"The last time I had to wait for a month to get an appointment." She told him, her first real words in at least an hour.

"Yes, but this is a special case." He told her, light dancing in his eyes. He looked like an eager schoolchild who has just discovered something wonderful for the first time.

"Oh, So since I'm not dying, I get bumped to the top of the list." She said a little more harshly than she intended. The good doctor had the grace to look sheepish but she quickly amended. "Fine, I will go down to the hospital tomorrow."

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THANKS TO ALL OF MY REVIEWERS!

A few notes: Angela and Solea, you two really cracked me up. To Lady of the Labyrinth, you can always pretend it isn't Sarah. You can just print it up and scratch out the S and put a T. And she is not pregnant. No, you just read it wrong. It really said that Sarah is…..well, I don't know what really could be mistaken for pregnant, maybe poignant or …. oh, well, I tried ….

Please leave me a contribution. Please. You know you want to….or maybe it's just me...


	8. chapter 8

Hello, everyone. Here is the next chapter. I just wanted to let you know that Sarah and Jareth won't be confronting each other for a while. Trust me, this story isn't even half way finished. Also, I am sorry that it took so long for me to update. I have been sick for a couple days, and I was sick when I wrote this, so watch out for really yucky grammar. I know that before I went over it, over half of the chapter was green or red in Word. Anyway, thanks to all my reviewers and please review. Hope you enjoy.

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CHAPTER 8 

"_It's beautiful…." She whispered, her delicate ivory hand falling to rest on the branch of a large, healthy oak. With a sharp intake of breath, large green eyes took in the beauty around her, nearly tearing at the green, lush nature of everything in her field that had been so dark only recently._

"_It is a gift fit for a queen." Came the sharp, aristocratic voice from behind yet another fully grown oak._

_Sarah swirled to look at him, dressed in only his signature white poet shirt and grey breeches tucked into tall, black boots. A large smile spread across her face._

"_Am I a queen?" _

_For a moment, Jareth looked down, mismatched eyes flashing something she could not read._

"_No. You should be, though."_

_Sarah giggled and reached out a hand to him. "Very well, then I would like to dance with my King."_

_Her musical tinkling surrounded them both as he swirled and swirled them through the verdant Utopia, the wonderland he had made for her from the death and destruction that her life had created in her soul._

_

* * *

_

Jareth had been angry all week.

Jarteh had been really angry all week.

He had bellowed. He had screamed. He had ranted and thrown things.

"Like a child, Jareth. You are throwing a tantrum as a child would." Chalen told him, limping in the elaborately carved doorway with his cane.

"Old man, you should not be in here…" Jareth growled as the goblins who had allowed him in closed the door and backed away. If anyone could handle this mess, it would be master Chalen.

"Shouldn't I? No, I suppose not. I really don't know if in this temper of yours you are above beating a frail, tired man who raised you like a son and who only did what he thought was best for you…" As if to emphasize his point of old, he sat down heavily in a chair and rested his chin on his cane.

"I know better than to believe for one second that you even come close to needing that cane, Chalen." Jareth told him crisply. "You should not have acted on what you thought was best for me. I am old enough now to do what I think is best for me. You meddled…..meddled, Chalen, like an old woman with seven daughters and no dowry for any of them. I suppose that is what the spell was originally invented for…"

He did not look for his reaction but instead walked onto his balcony as a strong wind blew through the air, whipping his hair around his face. Mismatched eyes stared at the busy town below him, at the goblins running to and fro, trying to cover the produce and bread stand to protect them from the harsh wind. He looked on at the human children wandering the streets alongside them, laughing at their mischievous antics and trying to join in.

"No, no, no, boy. You've got to hold it more firmly….like this." A skinny Goblin with a large nose told a wide eyed boy of about seven as he struggled to properly shoot his slingshot.

The little boy giggled as he hit a chicken dead on, oblivious to the fact that in the air high above him, the goblin King was faintly laughing too.

Chalen limped onto the balcony, watching the scene with interest.

"You love this place, don't you?" It was more of a statement than a question.

"You know the answer to that, Chalen." Jareth told him dryly. "This is the only home I have ever really known."

The man came to stand beside him, his eyes twinkling with the knowledge that the boy he had raised as his own loved something more than himself.

"You never told me why you're father banished you here in the first place."

For a moment, Jareth clenched his fist and Chalen feared he would get no answer.

"We had a falling out……"

Chalen looked on as if waiting for more.

Jareth sighed and continued.

"About the treatment of my mother…"

"Ah, I see. Your mother was a human, was she not?" The old man supplied, his suspicions confirmed for the first time as to where contention had come between the two.

"The things he used to do to her…..said she was nothing more than human chattel. If it had not been for the immortality I had given to her as a baby, she would have died quickly. Sometimes, I thought she would rather not have had me give it to her, but she would never say anything that hurtful that I might hear."

"I had thought that was what had happened." Chalen told him, noticing how the King gripped the railing until his knuckles went white. It was a widely known fact that in the underground many Fay kept human slaves and so more often than not, there kind was considered to be nothing short of inferior beings who could be treated any way that the malicious Fay deemed fit. There were very few who believed differently.

"She was a good woman, but I am more like him than her. She was not vindictive or scheming. She was innocent…so damn innocent to our ways."

"And so he sent you from him…"

"Yes," Jareth nodded. "When I first came here it was nothing more than a wilderness with a ruined castle in the middle. I nearly froze to death for weeks. I was only a young boy with no real control of my magic. One night, I remember I went to sleep in the only room in this very castle with four walls. It had been weeks since I had eaten. I thought that I would not wake in the morning, even fancied that I saw my mother hovering over me in my dreams."

His old friend looked on, waiting patiently for him to continue.

"When I woke in the morning, I was alone again except for a large structure in the middle of the land: the labyrinth."

"And after that?" Chalen asked as eagerly as his age would permit.

"The Goblins found me. They fed me and taught me how to live in the wild." Jareth looked at the old man fondly. "And that is how you found me."

Chalen looked down at the bustling setting below him. He had always suspected that his King had led a harsher life than the rest of his kind. Even in his aged mind, one of his most vivid memories was finding the young Jareth in the deep of the woods that had once been called haunted.

"Is that why you fear Sarah? Is that why you fear a child?"

Jareth nodded with a frown of realization.

"When I offered for her so long ago, I was still fairly innocent. I hated my father with such a passion I thought that I could do better than him. But now, as I get older, I see myself becoming him. I could not risk that."

For a moment, Chalen looked thoughtful and then turned his eyes back to the scene below him.

"Jareth, you now have no choice but to risk that. Your path has been set, but I can tell you this: You are more like your mother than you know. You have more kindness in you. Just look at those human children, those sad little creatures that were exiled here the same as you, unwanted and unloved. If you had been your father's son, you would have put them to slavery, but instead they are raised by the same ridiculous creatures that raised you. You have given them a chance."

He could see Jareth's jaw clench as another burst of wind whipped his hair around his face, making him look formidable to any that might see him. Resolutely, Jareth stayed silent, his fiery eyes burning holes in the horizon. It was this image that stayed in Chalen's mind as he hobbled back into the castle and away from the angry King.

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What did you think? 


	9. chapter 9

Hi, everyone. Sorry for the delay in my update. I have been sick all week. Thank you so much to my wonderful reviewers. I just read them all today, and they were really great. Hope you all enjoy! Oh, almost forgot, the grammar is sloppy, so ignore. Thanks!

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CHAPTER 9

Sarah was smiling. In her state of sleep, she thoughtlessly rubbed her stomach, oblivious to the presence that was inside it.

"Sarah, time to get up….Sarah, hurry, I've got to go soon. Come eat some cereal with me" Toby's voice called to her from downstairs as she sleepily rolled over and tried to go back to sleep.

That was, of course, until her stomach started rumbling.

With a groan, she managed to unwind herself from the covers and make her way to the kitchen.

"Well, hello, sleeping………….beauty?" Toby greeted her and whirled around at the countertop from pouring his cereal, a large grin cracking on his lips. "Now, sis, that is the look."

"Cereal…I want some cereal." Her voice rasped out while her stomach made a loud grumbling noise as though to reinforce her need.

Still laughing, he fixed her breakfast, thankful that she had slept in for the day and he was given a brief respite from her culinary skills. Toby cocked an eyebrow as he sat opposite of her, and she dug into her food with gusto. He had never seen her eat like that, especially not since she had gotten sick.

"Hungry, Sarah?"

There were no words from her. She only nodded in agreement and went back to her food. Toby was reminded of all the movies he had ever seen of cavemen, where they all tore their food apart with small grunts of happiness and nothing else and her hair didn't really help to contradict that. It looked like it hadn't been brushed in weeks with odds and ends and tangles sticking out everywhere and probably wild animals setting up house in it.

Within minutes, she had emptied her bowl and was getting up to fix more when her little brother very jokingly told her that she should probably just save herself more trips and use one of the big mixing bowls. For a moment, she cocked her head to the side as if in thought.

And then she grabbed one of the said bowls from the cabinet and started filling it up with fruity pebbles.

Toby sat at the table with his mouth agape and wide eyes.

"Um, I don't feel very good. I think I need to stay home today."

"Towy, whas wong? Do yu hav a fewer?" She asked worriedly, small pieces of red and blue and green dropping out of her mouth as she tried to talk with it filled.

He gulped, wondering if he should try to pinch himself.

"I think that if the world is going to end today, I would rather be home for it."

* * *

Toby was laying on the couch, a blanket pulled up to his chin, and flipping through the TV stations when he felt the hairs on his neck stand up. He shrugged it off and continued changing the channels, stopping when he reached a familiar grey haired man standing in front of an audience chanting "Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!".

"Hmmmm. I'm cheating on you with my mother. Very interesting stuff." Visibly he shuddered and "Euchhhhed" when he felt someone watching him. With a start, he jumped off of the couch , wondering if someone was in the house or if somehow he had just gone crazy. You know it figures, Toby thought lifting the remote up as though he was going to chuck it at any unsuspecting intruder, of course I'd be the one in this family who would go crazy first. Funny, I always thought it would be Sarah.

"Oh, for mercy. Calm down. It is only me…" A sharp, accented voice called from behind him as he whirled to see who it was.

"You! What do you want?"

"I came to see your sister?" Jareth told the boy and looked heavenward as though Toby had just asked him what color grass was.

"Well, why don't you use the front door like normal people. How do you keep managing to get in? You are really freaking me out."

"I love you mamma!" screamed the man on TV as both King and child turned to look at the image.

"Good Lord…."Jareth breathed in wonderment as the man kissed his mother feverishly "Is that…..? Oh, that's disgusting." He looked accusingly at Toby. "Does your sister know what kind of smut you are watching on this thing during the day? Wait, what are you doing here? I thought you weren't home at these times. Aren't you supposed to be in school?"

Toby stared the tall man down for a minute and then shook his head. "I stayed out. Sarah was acting really weird this morning."

Jareth carefully studied the boy's face and lifted an eyebrow. "Weird? As in how?"

"Come here. I'll show you." Toby motioned for Jareth to follow him to the kitchen where he led him to the sink in which Sarah's "cereal" bowl was resting. "That is what she ate her breakfast out of this morning. It was filled all the way. Now, I don't know how well you know Sarah, but that's not normal for her."

"Where is your sister? I thought she was supposed to be here." Jareth asked, alarm growing in his mind, the fact that his child was definitely growing in her stomach slamming into his awareness.

"She went to the doctor for a CT scan."

Now it was Jareth's turn to look puzzled. He tilted his head to the side in questioning.

Toby rolled his eyes and explained slowly "It's where they take a picture of your insides so they can see if anything is wrong. I think they think that Sarah's tumor has gone down. She should be back in an hour."

"These CT scans. What would they do to a pregnant woman?"

"Probably kill the baby….or cause birth defects. There is a reason they won't do it on pregnant women, but Sarah's not pregnant so I wouldn't worry about it. " Chuckling, Toby grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl on the counter, imagining a large Sarah with a swollen stomach and ankles. He thought of all the horrible things he would do to mess with her, like mix up her shoes when she couldn't see over her belly and put mismatched socks on her feet. He stopped from his thoughts to see Jareth heading to the door, alarm written on his otherworldly features.

"When did she leave?"

* * *

The small ding of the elevator pulled Sarah from her thoughts as she left the elevator to head to the radiology department. Her stomach made a little protest, but she ignored it. I am probably just hungry again, she thought smiling, happy that her appetite had finally found its way back to her.

"Now, to sign in" she told herself, heading to the counter where a bored looking woman with wire rimmed glasses sat. Sarah smiled as she scribbled her name and the attendant handed her a wrist band.

"You can sit down, Ms. Williams. We'll call you when we're ready." She told her, glancing over at the sitting area. Sarah found a magazine to read and settled down in her chair for a long wait. _Hopefully, this won't take to long because I'm really hungry..._

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_

THANKS TO ALL OF MY REVIEWERS! I REALLY APPRECIATE YOU ALL!

Please review! New chapter by Sunday!


	10. chapter 10

Hi, everyone. I am sorry for the delay in posting. My pollen induced sickness has left me with nothing to remember it by but a splitting migraine. I hope you all forgive me, and I hope you like this chapter. Oh, lastly, the grammar is probably really bad for this chapter. So beware of spelling and verb tenses. I will probably revise it later. Enjoy!

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CHAPTER 10 

Sarah Williams laid her head against the back of her chair, a pile of discarded magazines piling at her feet, and stifled a yawn. _I'm bored_. Her watering green eyes focused on the shiny floor below her, trying to pick out some kind of pattern in the rocky texture.

That was when the power started going out.

Everyone's attention in the little waiting room turned to the ceiling and the fixtures that were blinking nervously in the sterile white ceiling. _What the hell is going on here_? Sarah asked herself, raising from the chair and frowning in worry. The woman sitting at the sign in desk looked equally flustered as her computer screen went out. She squinted her eyes through her thick frames to look around at the strangely silent chaos.

_Sarah, get up and leave. _

The voice resounded through her head as she looked around for its owner. A cold feeling flooded her chest. She knew that voice. She knew who it belonged to.

_Sarah, get up and walk out or I am coming in to get you_.

Again, she looked around as though she would see him standing in front of her, but as the power completely went out, she could see nothing. But she could almost imagine him at the door, outlined in his elaborate clothing and wild hair, and the image alone made her want to fall on the cold of the floor and weep for what she could never have.

"Sarah…."

Her head whipped around at her name being called. For a moment, Sarah wanted to clutch her ears, to drown out the strange voices that seemed to come up from inside her as though she was losing the delicate hold she had on her sanity. She felt hungry, starving in fact as dizziness started to take over, making her plop back into the chair and bury her face in her hands. "What is happening?" She asked aloud, her voice small and weak.

"Okay, everyone. The power is out. Don't panic, though. It is only on this floor. I am gonna need to get everyone out of here." A shrill, old woman said, turning her flashlight on.

The sudden burst of light, however small, in the darkness made Sarah even more dizzy as she struggled to keep her eyes open. Something was wrong. It was apparent even through the haziness of her eyes as they continued to water. Her stomach lurched and rumbled loudly. If I don't get something to eat soon, I am going to eat someone. Oh, God, I am serious.

The fact that the people around her were actually looking quite tasty frightened her more than anything in her entire life. A small whimper rose up out of her throat as she buried her face in her shaking hands again.

"Sarah, come with me. We have to leave now." There was his voice again, calling her from the darkness she had fallen into. She was too weak, though. Her eyes wouldn't even open to look at the lean figure that had enveloped her in his arms, offering her the support she needed as everything for her went silent and empty.

* * *

"CHALEN!" The roar of the Goblin King could be heard through the entire castle as the doors to his bedroom bursts open. "CHALEN, GET IN HERE NOW!" Jareth looked at an unsuspecting Goblin that had only been passing to drop off something in the storeroom. 

"You, go get a goblin doctor. Go get the wise one. Hurry! As fast as you can!" The little goblin threw his container of sugar to the ground and ran from the scene as quickly as his short stubby legs would carry him.

Jareth hurried back into his room, to the precious bundle moaning on the bed in pain. He pulled off his gloves and laid a cold hand on his beloved, on the woman who he had almost been ready to leave behind forever. He frowned as she trembled, because he did not know what had happened to her or what was wrong with her, only that she was hurting. He could feel that, a pain creeping just beneath his skin like a phantom. He could feel a hunger in his belly, an extreme hunger that was not quite there but still pulling at him.

"Jareth, what is it? I was asleep…….." The old seer trailed off as he took in the writhing, dark haired woman on the bed.

"I don't know what is wrong. I can feel what is happening to her very faintly."

"Jareth, she is changing. She is changing much too quickly. The Fay in her is coming on too fast. It is supposed to be a very slow and gradual process, but this…." He paused and swallowed. "This will kill her."

A cold mask of impassiveness swept over the King's face, his reaction to the news marking him as the strong ruler he was. He would not cry, would not beg the powers above for her safe return. No, Jareth the ruler would ensure that she be made right again. He would not rely on something else to fix his problem. He would do it himself.

"What do I do, Chalen?" He asked, his voice ice in the heat of the room.

"I do not know…"

The windows in the room burst open, revealing the lightning that had just cracked the sky outside, evidence of the King's temper.

"You are lying, old man. Tell me what I need to do." Jareth opened and closed his fists, the electricity of his power radiating from him. He was very rapidly losing control of it, and if Chalen didn't answer him, well, it would be very bad for him indeed.

"You have to take some of the power from her. But, Jareth, it is tricky, easy to lose control. And…….well, it goes against many of your laws."

Jareth glared daggers at Chalen, an indication that he was supposed to continue.

"You have to drain some of her blood."

Jareth recoiled from the bed, repulsed by even the idea, and yet at the same time disconcerted to feel the sharp points of his teeth poking his lip. Long ago, Fey had been ordered against the drinking of blood. There were so many of them that became addicted to it and could not control their bloodlust, and so it was banned in the interest of the humans that still frequented the realm. The few who were so heavily dependent to the drink and could not control their thirst left their world for the aboveground where things were not so highly monitored, to feed and hunt there in secret so that no one, human or immortal alike would suspect them of anything so heinous as killing humans for their blood. They blended in with the normal people while the healthy white of their skin became pallid and sick looking as they stayed from the magic underground until finally they became nothing more than half-alive, half-dead immortals with a deadly reputation: vampires.

"That is impossible." Was Jareth's simple reply.

"Then she will die…" Chalen looked to him, the tension nearly choking the both of them.

"Will she become like the vampire bloodsuckers?" Jareth asked, concern lacing his voice.

"No, my son. She is not really so human now. The child has seen to that. You will not turn her into one of them" Chalen answered, an image of the last vampire he had seen flashing through his mind. The King was right to be frightened for her if that could be the case.

Nodding slowly, Jareth crawled on the bed to her side and pulled her heated form into his arms. Gently, he pulled her raven colored hair back to reveal the creamy soft of her neck. His mismatched eyes leveled on Chalen.

"Only take a little. Just enough to slow the change down. You must keep your control."

Jareth nodded again at his friend's words, and then with a deep breath, he sank his teeth into her flesh.

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Okay, a little strange there. Neither one of them is going to turn into a vampire or anything like that. In fact, the subject of vampirism will probably be explained in the next chapter or the one after that and then you will never hear about it again in this story. Hope you all enjoyed. I would like to give out a VERY BIG THANK YOU TO ALL MY REVIEWERS! YOU ARE ALL GREAT! 

Now, please leave me a little contribution.


	11. chapter 11

Hi, everyone! Thanks so much for the review on the last chapter. They really inspire me! Hope you enjoy!

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CHAPTER 11

_Everything in this world was crazy._

_She began the night by falling, a dreamy drop through the clouds and the trees until the green of the ground came into view. Her muscles flinched, and she steeled herself for whatever might come like the hard fall she was sure to soon get, but instead her feet only landed gently on the soft, plush grass of her field._

_Her bright green eyes took in the scene around her, the life and vitality that had risen form this once razed land._

"_He made this for you, didn't he?"_

_Sarah whirled around, the unfamiliar voice unsettling her thoughts, and took in the youth standing before her in strange clothes and wild blonde hair. But it was the eyes. Mismatched irises regarded her calmly as a slight breeze swept through the verdant utopia, ruffling the little boy's golden tresses. _

"_Who are you?" She asked, inadvertently moving closer to him._

"_I think you know. Somewhere very deep in your mind, you know who and what I am. You know who I belong to. I am the King's son."_

"_Why are you here?" The words sounded defensive, even to her ears. _

"_Because I cannot be anywhere else….well, at least not for a while." The little boy told her as he plopped down in the grass, aloof and awkward in his fine velvet breeches and silk shirt and the air of arrogance that resonated from him._

"_What do you want with me?" The questions were spilling from her mouth without thought as she stood leaning against the tree that Jareth had danced with her under._

"_I was just curious. You should know all about that. I wanted to see how the bond between the two of you fared." He reached down into the grass and placed a thumb to the dirt. "I was bored where I was at, so I decided to come visit." And with that, a single rose grew from the ground. Sarah watched him with wide eyes._

"_Aren't they suppose to grow in bushes?" _

_The miniature King, and Sarah had no doubt that was indeed what he was, shrugged his royal shoulders and frowned slightly. "To me, they are more beautiful this way. What is the fun of picking a beautiful rose from twenty of them bunched together. Father thinks that the most beautiful of all roses is the one that grows alone amidst the simpleness of the grass and dirt. He used to not think it possible." The little boy looked up and grinned, the first sign that he was indeed a real child. "I rather think he was referring to you when he thought that. A queen that grew from a mortal world with no real friends, always aloof in your singular beauty in a setting that was dim and bland without you to add color. I think that he had given up on the humans, but only because he had given up on you."_

_Sarah smiled at the child, her heart swelling with some strange sense of pride as he created more roses from the dirt around him. "But, I am no Queen."_

_The little boy looked up and, plucking a vibrant red rose to offer her, told Sarah matter of factly: "You will be, mother. You will be."_

_

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_

She was gasping for air when she woke, struggling to breath in the cold gloominess of the night. Her feet and hands wrestled with the covers to free her from their silky hold. Everything in the room was pitch black, but a ray of moonlight crept in through the open windows, casting an eerie blue light on the strange room she was in. On unsteady feet she rose and padded to a small door covered with windows and flung it open, only to be hit in the face with an ice cold breeze. For a moment, she lingered, the wind cooling her fever and waking her up, until finally she closed the door and turned back to the unfamiliar place she had woken up in.

Only to see a figure standing by the mantel of her fireplace.

"Who are you?" Sarah asked unsteadily.

"Someone you know…" was the only response in the same voice she had heard before falling into blackness before.

_It couldn't be, _she reasoned with herself_, he is dead. Perhaps you have just gone off the deep end finally. _

"Yes, Sarah, it is me. You are not dreaming this."

Sarah swallowed thickly, a burgeoning fear rising in her mind. If she wasn't dreaming this, then she was hallucinating it, and that was far worse than simply dreaming it. Tentively, her feet shuffled forward, one arm outstretched towards what she really hoped was only a figment of her overworked imagination.

_Dear God, don't let me be crazy…._

But her prayers were for naught as her fingers grazed a mound of solid flesh stretched taut over cheekbones. Instantly, she drew all of herself away, raw emotions pricking the back of her throat and eyes. She didn't know whether to run as far as she could or fling herself in his arms and seek solace in what she was sure was the working of a psychotic mind.

The King simply leaned against the mantel, a wave of cold indifference chilling the room.  
"Are you real?" Her voice was so quiet, so full of silent emotion that she thought for a moment she might have imagined saying something too.

"Yes, I am real Sarah." He told her, pushing himself away from the fireplace to stand in front of her, a vision in his grey breeches and white shirt. Intently, he watched her, waiting for one of them to break the silence that enveloped the both of them as she took the sight of him in.

And then finally flung herself into his arms.

"I thought you were dead…." She sobbed quietly, a torrent of pain and regrets that she silently cried over making their way down her cheeks and on his shirt in little rivulets of salt. He held her, rubbing the small of her back as she soaked his shirt, and whispering words of comfort into her hair.

"I thought you were dead…"

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Please don't hate me. I will update soon.So what did you guys think? I hope you liked it! 


	12. chapter 12

Hello everyone! I have to post warnings for this chapter. There is a rape scene, but it is not graphic at all, just sad. I don't know if I should raise the rating on it, so just tell me if I should. This chapter introduces Daeth, Jareth's dad, and Amira who will actually play a pretty decent sized part in the story. Thanks so much to all my reviewers. You are all amazing. Enjoy!

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CHAPTER 12 

Mortal memories.

With a start, Daeth shook his head, locks of thick, black hair falling in his face. A little breath escaped his cold lips, a slight wisp of overwhelming emotion leaving his body to ease the strain of hurt and pain in his mind. For months, he had been plagued with memories of a time before, when he was in love with a little human girl and she was in love with him. But this morning, they had came on too strongly, giving him sweats in his sleep. He had woken gasping for air and trembling with fear.

Something was happening.

"Sir, I have brought breakfast." A small, meek voice called from the door as a thin servant girl carried in a heaping tray of food. The girl was pretty, with thick auburn hair and wide lilac eyes. Strange features to be sure, but still, she was no Fay. That much was obvious to any in the underground who would look at her. There was too much color in her generous features, too much life in her shining eyes just hiding below the surface as though frightful of something.

Daeth smiled in spite of himself. So his little whore was all healed up and back again.

His lips twitched up in a malicious grin, the memories of the last time he had taken her still fresh in her mind.

_I have to be more careful this time_, he thought wickedly, _these humans heal so slowly_.

Truthfully though, the King knew he would no more deny himself her ill-wrought pleasures than he would practice some sort of restraint. He had been born to a life of royalty. His entire life had been lived with no rules, no boundaries, no ruler to stand above him.

He was a god.

The frightened woman sat the tray down and went to busy herself with opening the curtains in the cold room allowing little slivers of sunshine to filter in through the freezing haze. Her actions were slow and seemingly painful. She was stiff with anxiety, but Daeth would not be put off. Indeed, her slow painful movements only strangely excited him. With a snarl, The King stood, the bedcovers falling from his naked form as a hand shot out to grab her by the hair.

"Did I give you any permission to speak to me?" His steely baritone called out to her while the tears started to gush from her eyes of their own accord. Amira struggled in his grasp, knowing before it began that to fight was hopeless. He was her king and he wanted her. No creature in the kingdom denied a King, especially this one. Her aching back landed on the tangle of sumptuous sheets and covers_. This is how it has to be_, she rationalized as her heart started drumming in panic, _I am a human. He is a Fay. He will never let me go_.

Her eyes closed to block the image of his taunting face over hers, a scene that had played nightmarishly in her head for many nights since first coming to the underground. Cool air hit her bare skin as she gasped, realizing in a moment of shock that her clothes were shredded already. Thickly, she swallowed, trying to keep the bile from rising in her throat.

After all, he probably would have liked that.

Her body accepted her fate. Her mind knew that it must be, and yet her heart beat wildly, like a caged creature trying to escape the horrible defilement she felt. He was her master, her king. He owned her.

She knew nothing else but subservience.

Like an animal, he went at her in a desperate attempt to cleanse his body of the feelings still lingering in his mind. In all of his thousands of years of life, Daeth King had only known want and fulfillment.

Except for the bitch and the son who had called himself his.

With them, he had felt something different, something that made him feel from his heart and not just his mind. It had been years on years since he had known that pain, that truly horrible bit of human emotion. But then, he had felt it that morning, lonely and asleep in his large bed. A tremor had raced through the underground ever so slightly, so tiny that only those who knew magic might have felt it.

Nonetheless, it was there.

So, his bastard son had found his love. Despite all of the spells on his part, the dark whisperings in his ear, the horrible dreams he had given her of his death, they had found each other.

_Well_, he thought with one last shuddering moan, _I will just have to do something about that._

_

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_

Sarah woke with sunlight on her face and an oddly distant Goblin King, in fresh pants and shirt, sitting beside her bed watching her intently. Her heart swelled in the knowledge that he was alive and sitting with her. However, her stomach merely complained with a fresh roll of nausea. With a groan, she sat up, her stomach rumbling violently as she fought the urge to vomit on the velvet coverlet and satin sheets puddled around her waist.

"I'm hungry…" She told him in a faint, weak voice. There was something awkward in the air, a sort of tension resonating from him that was so thick it threatened to suffocate the both of them. Her mind struggled to ponder it, but her body demanded sustenance. Jareth met her bewildered gaze for a moment and then nodded brusquely as a goblin knocked on the door. It opened and admitted the little creature who carried in his short, pudgy hands a tray of food.

Sarah's mouth started watering as the aromas filled her nostrils. Moving quickly, she snatched the tray from the stunned goblin's grasp and dug in with gusto.

Jareth waved a hand to dismiss the little Goblin and turned his attention back to Sarah again, smirking faintly at the way she was eating.

If one could even call it that.

For a moment she stilled, food scattered over her clothes.

"Toby…" she managed to get out through a full mouth, but Jareth waved off her alarm.

"Time is different here, Sarah. To him, you've been gone about an hour. I assure you, he is quite safe."

Satisfied, she nodded and continued to devour her food.

"Sarah…"Jareth stood up after a while, a nervous frown on his handsome features, and began to pace the room. "I trust you feel better…"

Sarah nodded and, finished with her breakfast, put the tray away from her. "Yes"

"There is a reason for that. You have been healed in a sense." His words were slow and deliberate, as though he struggled with them.

She didn't really know where this conversation was going, so she nodded dumbly as though to urge him to continue. A moment of pregnant silence stretched out between them until finally Jareth turned from his place facing the mantel to look at her.

"Only, I couldn't really heal you. It wouldn't have worked. Someone interfered in the matters between us and helped me to do what I otherwise would not have."

For some strange reason, a dreamlike image of a sweat- slick Jareth whispering "I love you" in a moment of passion filled her head. She shook it quickly, fearful that the man in front of her could read minds.

But the man in front of her wasn't really paying attention. His thoughts had turned inward, as though he was struggling with something.

"Sarah," he said slowly, once more turning his eyes on her face to watch the emotions flicker on its beautiful features. "Sarah…" his voice was so gentle, so soft, unlike the cynical Goblin King that she had once known so well. But then, she had always imagined that under his impassive mask and cold words, there was warmth. It was very well hidden but still there. She had seen pieces of it in her dreams, fragmented bits of the Goblin King that didn't seem real but somehow felt right. Once again, Sarah focused her thoughts on the man standing awkwardly above her.

"Sarah, you're pregnant…"

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I am so mean. I almost feel bad for that. (he, he, he)

Please review, and no screaming please. I will post quickly if you don't scream.


	13. chapter 13

Hello, everyone. I am finally posting. I'm sorry for the time it took, but I really just got stumped as to what should happen. I would like to say THANK YOU to my reviewers. You are, as I tell you in every chapter, wonderful and great. I hope you all enjoy!

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CHAPTER 13 

Sarah's mouth gaped slightly, her face a mixture of emotions. Jareth took his stance at the mantel, his posture braced as though ready for something, his hands uncomfortably clenched at his side, and his chin raised slightly higher than usual.

Sarah, for her part, only stared out into nothingness. At one moment, it was like a dream yet it was real, painfully, irrevocably real. For some strange reason, she thought of the characters in her story, how she played God with their lives, meddling in this and that, creating things for them that would never have been had she not created it. She thought of how she had sat, hunched over and biting her lip, and tried to imagine what their reactions would be.

But this was not a story. This was her life. This was a real life that had somehow tuned her fantasy into flesh and blood, made her dreams solid and corporeal.

This was her life that had almost been taken.

"How…?" She croaked out, emotions swirling in her brain as though they might make her pass out. Her eyes were swimming with unshed tears, as her vision danced before her.

_The little boy_, she thought dizzily, realization slamming into her full force.

"Someone cast a spell on us, to make our dream real. He thought that he was acting out of what was best for you." His voice was cold, aristocratic. Uncomfortable with the show of any human emotion, he watched distant and aloof as she stared dazedly into his face. An impassive mask fell over his features as he watched his reflection in her watering eyes.

"Oh…."

He could take no more. With a small huff of indignation, he turned from her to face the wall again, studying the pattern of the stone there.

"Is it so horrible a prospect to become my Queen, Sarah?"

She looked to the window, to the raging storm outside that was blowing the trees to and fro. A part of her had always loved this place, the fantasy of a time when she was a child. But isn't that really what everyone wanted? Another chance at youth, a try where one could appreciate the simplicity and loveliness of innocence. But she was no longer a child. She had responsibilities. She had a place in her world. She had things that she had to take care of, people who had no one but her, people who deserved a real, normal life.

She had Toby.

"I will not become your Queen…" Sarah told him quietly, but still loudly enough to shatter the tension between them, to form it and make it something new and powerful, something angry.

Jareth whipped to face her, a scowl on his otherworldly lips. He stalked to her, his heeled boots tapping menacingly on the stone floor.

"Excuse me…" he asked, standing in front of her and breaking her longing gaze out of the window.

"I have other obligations, Jareth" She replied, her voice small against the rage resonating from him.

"Yes, you also have an obligation to the child you carry, the child I might add that is Fay nobility and will one day take my place."

Sarah broke down, a small sob leaving her lips as she covered her face with her hands. "I know. I know, Jareth. The little boy with wild blonde hair and mismatched eyes and an attitude that might match his father's."

"You've seen him…" Jareth slightly backed away from her. It wasn't really a question but he still waited for her response.

Her head bobbed up and down as she sobbed, the reality that she carried a child in her sinking more and more in with every minute. "Yes"

The look of shock dissolved from the King's face as he attempted to regain his composure.

"That is extremely rare, even for Fay mothers." He listened as she sobbed nearly silently. He, standing apart from her as though to do so might remove himself from the scene, watched as she cried.

"I can't…..I can't leave Toby. I'm sorry. I'm all he has left…You have to understand."

Jareth stood ready to argue but paused. Didn't he know what that was like? To have obligations to others that were above oneself.

"Sarah, you really have no choice. My child will not be born a bastard. You have to understand this." His voice had gentled somewhat, and Sarah had the distinct impression that Jareth was trying to catch her with honey instead of vinegar.

"I have a choice, Goblin King." She said, her voice nearly as chilling as his had been only minutes before. "I will not marry you. I will not leave Toby. You have no power over me…"

* * *

Chalen sat down at his old work table, vials and liquids filling the old slab. Gingerly, he pulled open one of his old books, blowing dust and dirt off of its pages. A cauldron on the fire popped menacingly, burning the floor where the drop landed.

"Oh, well my, it is ready to come out now." He chuckled to himself and then went back to humming softly as he pulled the old black pot out of the fireplace. A small gush swept through the cold keep, ruffling the papers on his large wooden desk and nearly snuffing the candles.

"Hmmmmm" He mumbled, putting his head to the side as though in thought.

Another strong gust of wind blew through his laboratory, knocking several of the old vials onto the table. Quickly, he went about to picking up the mess, mindful that to dally with such potions and liquids could have very serious effects. When Chalen was finished, his dirty rag was thrown onto the table and he left to go upstairs, wondering why in the Underground Jareth had caused the breeze. Picking up his old cane, he headed to the door and twisted the doorknob.

It wouldn't turn.

The old man struggled for a few moments, beads of perspiration trickling on his wrinkled skin.

"Do you need help, master Chalen?" The voice was strange and malicious and yet at the same time oddly familiar. As the world went black, Chalen's last thought was that he never even got to see who was behind him.

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What did you think? 


	14. Chapter 14

Okay, no throwing, no screaming, and no biting. I know I am a teeny bit late with posting but the important thing is that I finally did. Who threw that? Stop it! Well, anyway, I took a little trip but now I am back and I will be posting a new chapter at least every week if not sooner. DO NOT BITE MY ANKLE! Heavens, people, I am sorry I am late but you can't assault me. This chapter is kind of short but as a treat for taking so long to post, I am going to try to make my next one really long. Watch out for lots of grammar and spelling errors (I haven't written in a month) and enjoy!

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CHAPTER 14 

For a moment, he flinched, the unearthly beauty of his face turning even paler at her words. Then, with a hard glare, he pulled himself tall, looking every bit the King that he was, and narrowed his eyes at her.

"Oh, but dear Sarah, I do have some sort of power over you. Isn't it interesting? This child is partly mine. He came from me and so I have the power to keep him. Now, since the child is in you, it stands to reason that I have the right to keep you also."

"You're wrong, Jareth. I have obligations… responsibilities…things you wouldn't even begin to understand."

The room grew silent. Sarah knew that she had been wrong, knew that the words had been wrong before she had even uttered them but stubborn pride had kept her from apologizing for the misstep. The windows blew open, ruffling the curtains with their breeze. He advanced on her, his wild hair flying in the wind, eyes ablaze with a fury she had never thought possible from him. His pale, white hands gripped her shoulders as he met her frightened gaze.

"You stupid girl. Who do you think rebuilt this Kingdom after your thoughtless words destroyed it? Who do you think remade the houses and restored the castle? It was me Sarah. It was me, the Goblin King, who pulled out of misery and fixed your wrong. I was near dead with pain, my heart broken in ways that I never imagined when I had to walk through the rubble and undo your damage. I offered you my heart and you tried to destroy my people. Stupid, stupid girl."

Fresh tears welled in her eyes as she met his furious glare. Her lower lip trembled, but she would not cry, not in front of him. Taking in her shimmering pupils and shaking form, he softened bringing his forehead to hers.

"Is it really that horrible, Sarah? To become my Queen? Do you really detest it that much?" His voice was strained, sad, and strangely defeated.

"But…..But, Toby?"

"Will be taken care of, I can assure you."

"Jareth, you know that I really can't be your wife. I can't become a Queen. I have to take care of my brother. He deserves a normal life."

The anger returned to his face, erasing the tired features and replacing them with a sort of feral, animalistic rage.

"And what of the child that you carry? What does our child deserve? Do you not owe it to him to raise him in his world, to let him grow up in the place he will rule one day when I am gone"

"But you…You are immortal. You cannot die."

"Immortal does not mean forever, Sarah. It means we live for a long time but not forever. Very few things really stand the test of time."

She turned her head from him, a light blush creeping into her already glistening cheeks. She was thinking of their night together. He had stood the test of time. His love for her had survived pain and hurt. He had promised her forever and he was a man who stood by his word.

"You're right…." She murmured, her face still turned from him. "He deserves better…"

For a moment, he stared at her straining to hear what she was saying. Her voice was so soft, almost angelic with serenity.

"I don't know what to do, Jareth." Tears dropped from her eyes and she dabbed angrily at them.

Instantly, the Goblin King's face softened. "Stay with me, Sarah. Time is different here. It goes so much slower. I am sure there is something that we could do for Toby, some way we could keep him here but let him go aboveground also."

"I didn't want that life for him."

"But it is all you can really do." He told her softly, one gloved hand reaching up to stroke her cheek.

"No, I have to think of him. He's all I have left….." She trailed off in a fit of sobs. For a moment, the Goblin King tilted his head to the side and frowned. He could see there would be no easy way out of this.

"Very well, Sarah. I am tired of talking to you. If you will not stay with me as my wife, then you'll stay as my prisoner."

Her eyes flashed fury through the tears as she whipped her head up to meet his gaze.

"You… can't do that."

He laughed heartily, menacingly, the only sick, sarcastic way she had remembered him laughing and told her "Sarah, dear, this is my kingdom. I can do as I please."

"But there are rules. You can't just take me from my world and keep me here."

He brought his face down to hers so that there foreheads were nearly touching.

"I assure you, my darling Sarah, the fey nobility here have been rumored to do far worse things to human kind than kidnapping them. Keeping you here is the only way to keep the child safe and I will do whatever is necessary to make sure that MY child is safe." And with that he turned on his heel and all but marched from the room in search of his old wizard.

* * *

It was dark where Chalen was. Dark and loud. From all around him, there was screaming and cries of torture and agony that resonated through the night and made the listener cringe. 

"They are all humans…." A cold voice told him from the door of his stone cell. He shivered despite himself. The man sounded uncommonly familiar.

"Why would you care about me then?" Chalen asked in his frailest, oldest voice.

There was a chuckle through the black and Chalen strained his eyes to see the inhuman monster talking to him.

"Is it so wrong of me to want to see the man who helped my son build his Kingdom."

For a moment, there was silence. Even the screams and cries seemed to leave Chalen's ears. This was the man, the thing that had left a boy to take care of himself in the wilderness, the creature so vile he had killed his own wife. This was the man that Jareth called father.

"Well, you've seen me." He told him, trying to stand on his weak legs.

"Not so fast, wizard. I would like to know how you did it?"

Chalen shook his head slowly "Did what?"

"Got around my spells to get that bitch pregnant."

Chalen resolutely closed his mouth and steeled himself for whatever was coming next.

Daeth laughed again, a laugh that was so like Jareth's you would think that they were the same person, and smashed the old man in the face.

"Don't worry, spellmaker. I will undo it. He won't make the same mistake I did."

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So, what did you guys think? Please leave your reviews in the box. 


	15. Chapter 15

Hello all! Another chapter as promised. I would just like to say thank you to all my reviewers. You all really inspire me. I would also like to tell you all to watch for spelling and grammar mistakes because there are quite a few. One day, I am going to go back and fix all of them just not anytime soon. Anyway, enjoy……and review…….

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CHAPTER 15

Sarah did not cry.

The Goblin King braced himself outside the door, supporting his back on the stone entryway, and conjured a crystal to see her. His would be queen was sitting on the bed, a faraway gaze in her eyes. Occasional tears slid down the ivory of her cheeks, but she appeared to either not care or not notice. Jareth swallowed a lump in his throat. He expected Sarah to be testing the door handles, running to the balcony to see how high up she was, screaming about it not being fair or some such nonsense, but she appeared as though she simply did not have the fight in her anymore. She looked lost, like the very last thing she had to hang on to had been taken from her, and so she grieved because she did not have the strength to do any thing about it.

And then there was the way she cried. It was wrong. There was something in the way she grieved that struck him as wrong. When had she learned to cry so silently? What had made her learn to bear her pain with such grace? How had she learned not to whine about fairness whenever she was struck with a conflict?

What had made her so strong?

He saw it from the moment he first saw her in his dreams. The flame that usually flickered in her beautiful green eyes had been smoldered. She seemed world weary, as though she had seen and experienced horrors that had scarred her delicate dreaming heart. Jareth swallowed another lump in his throat. Wasn't that the way it had happened with him? Hadn't his life essentially beaten him down until the point that he had had no choice but to grow strong and fight, until he had had no choice but to build that wall around himself to keep others out or fall victim to the fates around him? Sarah had obviously done the same. His gaze settled back to the crystal as an overwhelming sense of guilt flooded his senses.

"You deserved more, Sarah. I would have shielded you. I would have protected you." With an angry groan, he shattered the crystal against the wall and went off in search of Chalen to give the old man the thrashing he deserved for meddling in something that never should have been.

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Sarah started quietly at the sound from outside of her door, a small break in the reverie of despair swirling in her head. Slowly, her shaking hand made its way to her stomach, to the very slight bulge there. Her hand shot up to her mouth, covering it as though the act would keep in the sob that crawled up her throat. For so long, she had been strong. How could she really stop now?

Then again, what was there left to be strong for?

Her stomach gave a roll to answer the question, but still she cried and screamed and sobbed into the confines of her hands. She would let the tears out, but none of them would really leave her body. The trembling, soaked, ivory palms pressed firmly against her lips saw to that and in that comfort, in that knowledge that she wasn't so weak as long as she cried so restrainedly, Sarah Williams found some sort of release of everything that had went from bad to terribly, terribly worse in her life. In the salty depths of her eyes, she saw Toby and mom and dad.

"Don't cry, daddy. I will take care of him. I love you. I love you." The words ripped through her raw emotions like a hellish mantra as she tumbled to the bed, still trying to keep her pain as quiet and as unnoticed as possible.

* * *

"CHALEN! Chalen, get out here you damned old fool. I swear I could throttle you for what you've done. GET OUT HERE!" With a small huff of indignation, Jareth, King of the labyrinth and son to one of the most powerful fey Kings in history, stomped down to the master spellcaster's large laboratory like an irate youth.

"CHALEN, SO HELP ME….I would really get out here if I were you." He stopped and placed fingers on the bridge of his nose, willing the magick coursing through his blood to cool down so that he didn't do something he really regretted. He had came in a fit of rage, but now he realized that truth be told, he only wanted another to talk to, to rant to about the girl, no woman, upstairs who refused to become his wife, the woman who seemed almost upset that it took a child to save her from a slow, painful death.

"Chalen, I am not going to kill you. I just want to speak to you." One hand came to rest on his lean hips as he narrowed his eyes and looked around. As a child, he had delighted in trying to find the old wizard as he changed and shape shifted in and out of various creatures and items. Once the old man had changed into a hat pin and nearly scared Jareth to tears when he couldn't find him.

Jareth felt the corners of his lips lift up in a smile. He remembered the man he looked on as a father coming back to form and grumpily telling his pupil that he would not do that again, for he would have back pains for weeks from being looped in that funny shape. He had laughed then, that old, twinkling laugh that only those who are at peace have. So many times, Jareth had envied him and that laugh. When would the Goblin King ever be able to smile and be joyful so freely? So wholly and fully?

His keen eyes scanned the room and slightly widened at the shards of glass on the table.

"What in the bloody hell….?" He trailed off as he made his way to the door which showed a dark red bloodstain against the oak

For a moment, he only stared and then whispered so quietly that it was almost imperceptible "Chalen…."

* * *

Chalen, on the other hand was not faring so horribly, having been given stale bread and dingy water. He laid his head on the mud floor, listening to the noises in the ground. Once, at a much younger age, he had been here. He had been in this very dungeon, sentenced to have his eyes gouged out for seeing a noble woman naked. He had not done it on purpose and was quite horrified to be in so embarrassing a predicament, but the fey lady had considered it insult and so he was to be thoroughly punished. Never mind that she had been bathing in a common watering stream.

He remembered lying on the floor, waiting for them to come, knowing that he could not escape and then they finally did take the poor boy's eyes out for doing nothing more than going to the watering hole to get water for the day. How he had cried afterwards, or tried to anyway, for the tears burned through the raw flesh. He would press his eyes to the cold mud, trying to will the pain away. He felt many things then: sadness, horror, despair, but never never did he feel anything like that anger he felt towards the cold hearted man in the black mask that cast the horrific blows.

And then one day, pressing his eyes to the cold mud, he heard a voice, a small feminine voice that seemed to him like an ethereal being come to rescue. He felt soft hands on his cheek and smelled perfume in the air.

"What is your name, little one?"

He had mumbled the name to her, awestruck at the light seeping in through the useless swollen lids.

"I am Krisera. I have come to take you out of here."

How vehemently the boy had shook his head, knowing that the lady could not achieve what he had so fervently tried for before his sentencing. A tinkling laugh came to his ears as he felt a gentle hand grasp his. He imagined in his mind a clean hand with long nails and pale ivory skin. She pulled him up with an amazing bout of strength and urged him to walk beside her.

Nervously, he stumbled along, unaccustomed to walking without his eyesight, until his nose took in the clean smell of the trees and grass. She did not scold or yell only walked slower to accommodate him.

"Going somewhere, wife." It was a cold, sick voice, the same cold, sick voice that had laughed when his eyes were torn out.

Chalen felt the blood drain from his face. His first instinct was to run at him and tear his eyes out with his bare hands but then the thought came to him that he would not even know where the man was standing, much less where his eyes were.

"Yes, Daeth. I am taking this boy back to his mother. Surely, even a monster like you would not deny him that."

Chalen stood tall but trembling. His heart beat wildly in his chest, yet still he wanted to protect the lady who had taken him from that place here he was sure he would die.

"You and your human sympathies, Krisera. Honestly, they only anger me." He heard a smack and a small thud and then there was no sound. He rushed to where he thought the lady had fallen but came in contact with a standing body, a decidedly female standing body.

So, she had stood her ground.

A gentle hand took his and he imagined what sort of bruises and marks covered the skin he had so recently imagined flawless.

"So, I see, master Chalen, that you have met my husband King Daeth. Don't worry little sir, you will have more than your chance to repay him for what he did to you, for what he took from you. I will not live to see it, but together you and my son will destroy him."

And now the master spellcaster lay on the cold mud with his burning eyes pressed to the floor. It had been hundreds of years since his eyes had felt such pain but he knew that it was only because of the memories. But that day so long ago in the King's actions, he had made a terrible mistake and by the time Jareth's mother was through with the little blind boy, she had made for King Daeth a terrible enemy.

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What did you guys think? 


	16. Chapter 16

Authors Note:

I would like to thank all of my reviewers, and I would like to apologize for putting the story on hold for so long. My mother was in a horrible car accident that has ultimately resulted in her having to have her leg amputated. When you see your mother go through something like this, I suppose it makes you stop and realize that she isn't going to be around forever, and that when it's all said and done you could lose her any day, especially considering how many health problems have came out for my mom because of a car accident. I guess it's part of growing up, realizing that your parents will die one day. Anyway, I suppose what I am trying to say is that I have been taking care of her, trying to patch some of the many rifts between us and to let her know that no matter what, I love her. For those of you who reviewed, I thank you so much. I wouldn't have even considered finishing this story if not for you. It's hard to write about romance when you are watching your family come apart. This story is not finished and you can expect at least a chapter every week until it is. If not, you can scream at me. So, when you are finished, please review, and I hope you enjoy. Oh, and watch for grammar errors because there are quite a few. Enjoy.

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_  
It had been raining when she got home, torrents of water and lightning pelting the landscape with a viciousness only nature could muster. She was young then and the house was empty. For a teenager, it was paradise, and she took advantage of the paradise by enjoying the quietness of the house._

_Then, some time later the great clock in her living room chimed at midnight and Sarah knew that something was wrong, felt the tremors of nervousness clutch at her gut in a way that was new to her. One trembling white hand reached for the phone but then stopped. Who would she call? Who would know where her family was? _

_She told herself to relax. They probably had car troubles or maybe were just having a very late night. Sarah didn't calm down though, attacking each suggestion mentally. _

_"Why wouldn't they call…" her shaking voice asked the great empty house. The silence that had seemed so wonderful earlier now only scared her more, adding extra twists to an already wrung out stomach. _

_An hour passing by found her sobbing on the couch, breaking occasionally to stand and pace. She was torn between making her way to the streets to look for them and waiting for their call. _

_The hour following found the phone ringing, shattering the tension and quietness._

_Shakily, she picked it up._

_"Hello…"_

_A moment of static, and then "Sarah Williams?"_

_"Yes, yes, this is me."_

_"We need you to come to Beaumont Regional as soon as possible. We have a situation concerning your family."_

_"What, what kind of situation?"_

_"Ms. Williams, you are going to need to come down here."_

_

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_

The Goblin King had taken to the air, his great white wings spread out on both sides of him. The goblins were searching below, but Jareth had a feeling deep in his gut that Chalen was not in the goblin city.

_Old man_, he thought nervously, _what have you gotten yourself into?_

_

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_

Chalen was feeling remarkably renewed as the memories left him. For so long, every part of his life had been a step on a path laid out for him ages ago by a woman he had loved as a mother. And now, now that the day was soon to come, he saw the ending of his journey. He knew that this was the catalyst, this would end the reign of the most feared man in the Underground: the man Jareth had once called father. With a strangely serene smile, he closed his eyes against the throbbing pain, seeing behind his lids his freedom looming in the distance. Yes. Soon, he would be free of this cell, but most importantly, he would be free of his destiny, the horrible chain that seemed so righteous but had pulled at him for so long that he longed to be free of it.

* * *

Softly, the large door creaked opened and closed as Sarah worked to control her breathing and keep her eyelids closed, the memories of her nightmares too much for her waking self. 

"I know you're awake, Sarah, so you might as well stop."

She ignored him simply because her body was telling her that she could not do with another confrontation and scrunched her eyes more tightly.

"My friend and advisor is missing…" He started, a hard tone to his voice.

"I didn't know monsters had friends…" Was her only reply.

Jareth ignored her and continued. "Toby is in a room near here if you would like for me to bring him. You may have your dinner together." It was a tiny kindness, but to Sarah, it was coming from the most manipulating man she had ever known and that made the tiny kindness something else.

"And will I owe you my soul…?" she asked mildly, as though it were the most innocent comment in the world.

"No, not your soul. But I would take something that is worth far less, something that I have had a dozen times over as evidenced by the child in your belly…" He all but sneered at her and made his way for the door.

Sarah, however wasn't through with him and sprung up from her bed to confront him with the most haughty and frosty stare she could manage.

"A child that wouldn't be there if you hadn't wiggled into my dreams and ….and ….seduced me. They were dreams. If you think for one moment that it would have even come close to happening in real life, you are very mistaken."

"You think I did this? You think that I would risk being tied down to a selfish, conceited human?" he asked incredulously, noting with some satisfaction that she flinched. "If you think that consciously I would have willingly put myself in this horrid situation, you are the one who is very mistaken.."

Her face lit up in anger as he turned her own words on her.

"Selfish? Conceited? I didn't rip you away from your life and responsibilities and put you in a strange world with no way of escape."

"Who says I didn't give you a way of escape." He gestured toward the balcony. "You are only fifteen stories up…Isn't suicide what humans do when they are overwhelmed?"

"Great idea, Jareth, BUT YOU WENT AND MADE ME IMMORTAL!"

A knock sounded at the door. Two pairs of angry eyes turned toward it as Jareth bellowed for whoever it was to come in.

Toby quickly took in the scene as did the little goblin escorting him.

"I came for dinner. I was gonna wait but I am starving…"

At the sight of her little brother, the only normal thing in her life with his wild hair and chubby cheeks, Sarah broke down crying, gesturing for him to come to her. He did, however grudgingly, and let her fuss and squeeze him and cry against his soft hair.

"It's all right. Everybody's been real nice to me. They tried to brush my hair, though, so they lose cool points for that."

She laughed slightly and tried to wipe her eyes. "I just missed you.."

"I am an easy guy to miss. I mean- cute, fun loving, witty. How could you not?"

She laughed again, a twinkling sound despite her stopped nose.

"Well…."Jareth started from the door, the argument between them paused for the time being. "I will just be on my way then."


	17. Chapter 17

Hi. Thanks to my reviewers. I hope you all enjoy!

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CHAPTER 17 

The evil ruler of the underground who christened himself Daeth, or destroyer in his native fey tongue, walked languidly through the winding corridors of the dungeon. His heavy black boots thumped against the dirt of the floor. The prisoners in cells on either side of him wailed and moaned. In the distance, he even heard a scream, a sound that welcomed the malevolent presence to the cold darkness.

Daeth walked alone, a typical venture for him given the fact that many others of his army and council held a fear of this place. It was a healthy fear born from the simple fact that they risked imprisonment merely being in his presence. For the most part, King Daeth was the worst kind of ruler: childish and given to whims of any kind. But perhaps the King's most disagreeable trait was the cruelty that he could wield as easily as a sword, the evilness that twined and fused itself into every one of his words, his thoughts, and his actions. He had the impetuousness of a child with a lust for destruction that matched a demon's, and it was the reason that the King's presence in the throes of so much suffering was as calming to him as a lullaby to a squalling babe. His horrible nature allowed him to smile at the woman in the cell closest to him, a young mother who had only tried to steal a bit of food for her starving family and had paid the price by losing both of her hands. He smiled at her as she cried, the tears making paths down her dirty face to fall and rest on the stumps that formed at the wrist. Her mouth moved in a rhythmic prayer breaking only for sobs, and the sight made his heart, if indeed that's what it was, swell with joy.

The woman, however amusing as a detour, was not why he had ventured through the cold dungeon.

The old man was.

Chalen sat against the back of his cage, his old joints screaming at him for the need to stand and stretch and a small smile tugging at the corners of his lips at the sight of the Fey.

"Are you so fond of me that you could not wait a night?" He asked, courage and amusement heavy in his ancient voice.

"I want to know what my queen meant when she spoke the riddle that prophesized my death."

A thick silver eyebrow arched. "The riddle she spoke before you gutted her like a pig?"

Daeth cut him a sharp look with his bright blue eyes. "She told me that I would die because of the son and his master. I need to know to whom she was referring."

"Am I correct to remind you that you only sired one child?"

For the very briefest of moments, the monster in gold looked exasperated.

"I had hoped to have a polite conversation, which was very lenient of me considering what I wanted to do when you somehow managed to remove the spells that enabled Jareth to get that human bitch pregnant. However," His voice, which sounded so much like Jareth's, held a warning tone. Quick as an eyeblink, he pulled a bejeweled dagger from the hilt of his belt. "I suppose that will not be the case."

* * *

Sarah bolted up from her place among the silken pillows and covers of her bed, a fine mist of sweat shining on her face. Screams of the cold, dark place still rang in her ears. She could feel Chalen's pain reverberating through her eyeballs, and a sudden urge to cry swept over her. As quickly as the dagger had come out of Daeth's belt, she was on her feet and to the door of her room. Braving the halls in nothing but her thin cotton nightgown, she searched for Jareth, amongst the doors and halls. 

After what seemed like forever, his accented voice reached to her from nearby room. When she finally found him, he stood before a large marble table, a great map in front of him. His eyes swept up at her entrance, and she suddenly felt conscious of the thin nightgown she had on.

"Jareth…"

He put up one gloved hand to stop her. "I don't have time for this Sarah."

"Jareth, please…" The urgency in her voice gave him pause. "I know where Chalen is."

A nervous twitter went through the small group of goblins assembled at their King's side.

"What do you mean? How could you possibly know….." He stopped short, noticing the protective hand over her slightly swollen belly.

"Who's Daeth? He was torturing him….I mean to say Daeth was torturing that old man. Why does he sound like you Jareth? Why does he care if I'm pregnant?" Her eyes were wide, frightened, but Jareth's met hers in a sharp contrast: mismatched green and blue told in fire and ice. In a few short strides, he was in front of her, grabbing and holding her by the arm.

"You will never utter that name in my presence again…"

She tried to wiggle free of him, but he held tightly. "Jareth…" She pleaded, and for the first time he noticed that she was genuinely scared.

_She's frightened of me_, he thought with alarm, loosening his grip on her.

"Sarah, go back to your room. Rest. I will handle my own dilemmas."

"If this man is a threat to my child," Her voice, shaky but laced with barely discernable false bravado, challenged him. "Then this is my dilemma too."

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